Seasonal changes in dry matter yield from Karst pastures as influenced by morphoclimatic features

Pastures are strongly affected by local environmental variables in terms of their species richness, plant composition and herbage production. A multi-site monitoring study was conducted over three years to investigate the influence of morphoclimatic factors on the seasonal variations in dry matter (DM) yield from Karst pastures. Seven sites located on the Italian and Slovenian Karst regions were investigated that differed in terms of their geological and geomorphological features, as well as their soil types. At each site, the daily DM yield (kg ha-1 d-1) was determined using Corral-Fenlon method which permits to simulate herbage utilization from grazing herds. The morphoclimatic features were also analysed, with the aim to evaluate the link between seasonal DM yield and geomorphological and environmental factors. Generalized non-linear mixed models were built to study the observed seasonal variations in DM yield, using day of the year (DOY), growing degree days (GDD), and cumulative rainfall. Furthermore, environmental descriptors were included in the model in order to evaluate their effects on DM yield. The seasonal variations in yield showed two growing periods (spring and late summer), which were described by Gaussian curves. For the spring growing period, the model improved when the interaction between soil granulometry and growing degree days corresponding to the curve peak was taken into account. This confirms the influence of soil type and air temperature on pasture yield. For the late summer growing period, the interaction between the sand classes and the number of rainy days from the beginning of the period to the peak of the curve improved the model. The curve parameters of our models are correlated with environmental descriptors depending on the lithology and particle size of soils. The results are essential for the optimization of pasture management and avoiding degradation due to over- or under-grazing

The Impact of the SFP System on Italian Farmland Prices and Tenure Contracts. Factor Markets Working Document No. 65, August 2013

EDITED VERSION TO BE PUBLISHED SOON. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the estimation of the potential effects of the CAP reform on propensity to transaction, particularly comparing the effect of different new instruments/policy settings with the current policy (CAP health check) used as a baseline. The work is focused on three of new policy instruments within the post 2013 CAP reform proposal: regionalization, greening and capping. The first and second are analysed in more detail. The analysis will be based on a survey of farmers in the Province of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Italy. The questionnaire focuses on mechanism of access to land and related incentives towards different land use/economic behaviour. The survey includes information about respondent characteristics (farm, farmer, household and payments received) and stated intention about potential changes in land operated under alternative agricultural policy scenarios (particularly the post-2013 reform proposals)

Tecnología, materia y lugar: Procesos de modernización en la obra española de la posguerra. Instituto de enseñanza media, Málaga. Arquitecto: Miguel Fisac

La trayectoria de Miguel Fisac (1913-2006) recorre el siglo XX de la arquitectura española, dejando traslucir la complejidad de la búsqueda de la modernidad en un régimen que reclamaba formas academicistas para su mensaje identitario nacional. El Instituto de Enseñanza Media y Escuela de Comercio en Málaga con sus bellos pórticos de hormigón de sección variable, su tratamiento científico de la luz, el espacio humanizado de sus patios, y la vinculación al lugar, ejemplifica una apuesta por la arquitectura como laboratorio tecnológico. La documentación original nos desvela su valor añadido al tratarse de un segundo proyecto del autor; en este artículo se analiza la obra construida, en contraste con la monumentalidad y simetría del primer proyecto; representando los cambios operados en la arquitectura española de posguerra. Fisac introduce una nueva arquitectura docente en el paisaje andaluz de mediados del XX. Profundamente deteriorada, esta investigación propone su puesta en valor.Miguel Fisac’s career spans the twentieth century Spanish architecture (b.1913-d.2006) and mirrors the complexity characterizing the search for modernity in a regime concerned with reclaiming an academicism in order to convey the clichés of nationalism. Challenging official architecture, the High School and School of Commerce in Malaga, with its succession of concrete porticoes, his technical use of light and the humanized space of its patios, exemplifies this stake in modern architecture as a field for technological experimentation. The documentation discloses an added value to this work, revealing that there had been two proposals. This article compares these, contrasting the actual building to the monumentality and the symmetry of the first proposal, corroborating a major shift that took place in Spanish post-war architecture. Fisac introduced a new educational architecture into the Andalusian landscape of the midtwentieth century. Deeply deteriorated, this research seeks to establish its value by means of a rigorous process of documentatio

Ricostruzione geologica tridimensionale della stratigrafia tardo-quaternaria nel sottosuolo di Ferrara

This work is aimed at the reconstruction of the upper Quaternary depositional architecture, below the urban area of Ferrara, in northern Italy. The study area is part of the lower alluvial plain of the Po and Reno rivers and is therefore dominate by fluvial channel sands, levee sands-silts, and interchannel depression mud. The research was focused on the reconstruction of a digital geological model of the sedimentary bodies buried in the first 35 m under the topographic surface. The study units accumulated through Holocene and late Pleistocene times. The research work is based on the analysis of a rich data set, derived from about 2,000 subsurface investigations, consisting of continuous coring, penetration tests (including CPTU and SCPTU), and water wells stratigraphy. The subsurface modelling was achieved through both the conceptual interpretation of surface and subsurface information and the computerized geostatistic interpolation of digitalized data. The digital interpolation overcame the large heterogeneity of the data set into a homogeneous statistical and conceptual framework, through the use of a time and economic efficient work protocol. The research work achieved the reconstruction of the environmental evolution of the area, from the last glacial maximum time up to the present. The large climatic and eustatic fluctuations of the Quaternary largely influenced the environmental evolution and sedimentary dynamics of the area. During the last sea-level lowstand, a large body of synglacial river sands accumulated into the research area, under middle alluvial plain conditions. During phases of the eustatic rising, a thick alluvial plain body aggraded in the southern portion of the study area, fed by Apennines derived rivers, whereas non depositional condition persisted on the northern structural high. The maximum transgression was matched with the widespread sedimentation of fresh water marsh muds. During the highstand times, sands accumulated into both the Po and Reno channels, and mud into the adjacent interfluvial depressions. The research work demonstrated the great role played by the compressive deformation of this portion of the seismic active Apennines Foredeep Basin in the shaping of the depositional architecture. The sedimentary successions accumulated onto the anticline crests are much thinner than those sedimented into the syncline areas. The stratigraphic interpretation of the subsurface data can improve the geotechnical and hydrogeological work and support an improved seismic danger mitigation of an area significantly affected by the May 2012 earthquakes

What Do we Know about Entering Innovation Network by SMEs ?

The importance of networking as a way to enhance innovation has been pointed out in many scientific papers, in particular for SMEs. A great number of scientific studies clearly establish the significant role of SMEs in economic growth, promoting flexibility and innovation in an economy. The process of successfully engage in a network represents a key for enhancing competitiveness. In order to improve effectiveness of network is pivotal the achievement of a better understanding of SME behavior.The presented work aims to identify factors that characterize food SMEs entering in innovation networks by integrating findings from the literature review with a survey of food SMEs

Romanzi nelle i il suono dei suoni la parola delle parole opera polipoetia n. 11 per Abraham Abulafia

Spero non sia veritiero quanto affermato da Valery, “il processo creativo è più interessante dell’opera stessa”, perché alla fine come performer avrei fallito.

Two-channel charge-Kondo physics in graphene quantum dots

Nanoelectronic quantum dot devices exploiting the charge-Kondo paradigm have been established as versatile and accurate analog quantum simulators of fundamental quantum impurity models. In particular, hybrid metal-semiconductor dots connected to two metallic leads realize the two-channel Kondo (2CK) model, in which Kondo screening of the dot charge pseudospin is frustrated. Here, we consider theoretically a two-channel charge-Kondo device made instead from graphene components, realizing a pseudogapped version of the 2CK model. We solve the model using Wilson's Numerical Renormalization Group method, and uncover a rich phase diagram as a function of dot-lead coupling strength, channel asymmetry, and potential scattering. The complex physics of this system is explored through its thermodynamic properties, scattering T-matrix, and experimentally measurable conductance. We find that the strong coupling pseudogap Kondo phase persists in the channel-asymmetric two-channel context, while in the channel-symmetric case frustration results in a novel quantum phase transition. Remarkably, despite the vanishing density of states in the graphene leads at low energies, we find a finite linear conductance at zero temperature at the frustrated critical point, which is of non-Fermi liquid type. Our results suggest that the graphene charge-Kondo platform offers a unique possibility to access multichannel pseudogap Kondo physics.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Trajetória do estoque residencial formal - São Paulo, 2000/2020

Esse artigo apresenta e discute de forma pioneira a trajetória do estoque imobiliário residencial formal no Município de São Paulo entre 2000 e 2020. Apesar da grande importância do tema, praticamente inexistem estudos sobre o tema. Partindo de dados detalhados inéditos do cadastro imobiliário municipal, exploramos o quadro geral do estoque residencial e suas transformações por tipologia e valores nas duas últimas décadas. São Paulo sofreu profundas transformações em seu estoque, passando de predominância horizontal de padrão baixo para liderança de imóveis verticais de padrão médio, com também crescimento significativa dos imóveis verticais de padrão alto. O efeito dos principais instrumentos urbanísticos parece ter sido bem reduzido sobre a trajetória do estoque. A dinâmica dos valores do imposto cobrado, por outro lado, indica uma expressiva apreciação dos valores, mais elevada entre imóveis de alto padrão, em especial horizontais, mas também verticais. Tais elevações ocorreram continuamente, mas se concentraram nas novas tabelas de valores. Essa contínua elevação indica decisão de acompanhar as elevações verificadas no mercado, provavelmente por razões orçamentárias, mas resultando em valores medianos mais diferenciados por padrão, e a estrutura de cobrança mais progressiva

The Impact of the SFP System on Italian Farmland Prices and Tenure Contracts

The connection between policy and other context variables and land markets is at the core of the policy debate, including the present reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Factor markets are a central issue in analyses of farm development and of agricultural sector vitality. Among the different production factors, land is one of the most studied. The land market is an imperfect market, because of its low substitutability, poor transparency and high transaction costs. It is characterised by a low number of transactions and a local dimension, and is also influenced by economic, policy and institutional frameworks. In particular, the agricultural economics literature has highlighted the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on factor markets (Floyd, 1965; Parsch et al., 1998; Latruffe and Le Mouel, 2006; Ciaian and Swinnen, 2006; Bartolini et al., 2011) and specifically studied the way in which the CAP reforms have changed these effects over time. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the estimation of the potential effects of the CAP reform on propensity to transaction, particularly comparing the effect of different new instruments/policy settings with the current policy (CAP health check) used as a baseline. The work is focused on three of new policy instruments within the post 2013 CAP reform proposal: regionalization, greening and capping. The first and second are analysed in more detail. The analysis will be based on a survey of farmers in the Province of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Italy. The questionnaire focuses on mechanism of access to land and related incentives towards different land use/economic behaviour. The survey includes information about respondent characteristics (farm, farmer, household and payments received) and stated intention about potential changes in land operated under alternative agricultural policy scenarios (particularly the post-2013 reform proposals

Innovation in European food SMEs: determinants and links between types

The food sector has traditionally been considered one with the lowest research and development expenditure to value added ratio. In recent decades, however, the business environment has become more demanding in terms of technological inputs for reasons related to food safety, quality and also the globalisation of the food market. This provides a strong incentive to innovate, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) seeking to remain in business.Most businesses operating in the food sector belong to the SME category which, based on the literature, tends to have a low level of research capacity.This study seeks to identify determinants of the types of innovation adopted and associations between them by analysing a sample of European food SMEs. For this purpose a non-parametric analysis, namely the classification tree technique, is carried out. The main finding is that due to the technological factors inherent in the food industry, a tight linkage exists between product, process and market innovation. Moreover, the study shows that collaboration between competitors encourages SMEs to engage in market, process and business model innovation. Conversely, synergy with suppliers and customers supports product innovation